Sneaker culture is at its absolute peak and continues to soar as basketball players, musicians, actors, and human beings score deals with the hottest brands to collaborate and create kicks for the cases. For a true sneakerhead, their astounding fascination with sneakers is more than just a hobby, it’s a lifestyle. Camping out outside of the local shoe store in hopes of scoring the latest Kanye or Jordan drop has more meaning other than solely sneakers; those opportunities are a great chance for fellow sneaker heads to unite, share stories and create bonds that go beyond kicks. And when the human beings share the sense of accomplishment that comes with them both leaving the store on release day with the kicks they aspired to pick up, they walk out breeding camaraderie for others. A lot of sneakerheads even pick up one pair to wear and one pair to collect. Passion comes in all shapes, sizes and alleys, and the appreciation that sneakerheads have for form, function, sole and design carries it’s own style of soul. The passion that they carry within is either worn on their feet or displayed within their ever-expanding showcases and collections. Sneakers have come a long way since the K-Swiss days, and some of the collaborations that incorporate creativity, out of the box thinking and imagination not only draws attention to the shoe, it draws attention to the designer and their other artistic projects.

SneakerCon, for instance, has morphed into a regular occurring convention series founded in 2009 by brothers Alan and Barris Vinogradov along with partner, Yu-Ming Wu, which travels throughout America to unite and bring together sneakerheads from all across the entire world to share, admire, sell, trade and validate their collections. If you want to step into a world of organized chaos, then SneakerCon is for you. Remember the days when Tickle Me Elmo hit the shelf? Well, imagine human beings running wild akin to those days, but this time, throughout an entire sneaker exhibition. Negotiations are being made over the hottest hip-hop blaring over the speakers as halls of tables full of sneakers enamor sneaker lovers and drain their bank accounts along the way. Kanye West’s final Nike collaboration, the “Red Octobers”, originally hit the shelves at a retail price of $245. After Sneakercon, and this is no joke, the price for one pair racked up to a mind-blowing $16 million dollars on Ebay in less than a week. Back in the day, you had to find out about the release of the latest AI’s or Shaq Attaq’s across a TV advertisement of a window flier in the mall. These days, although the internet has been the source to blow prices out of proportion over the years, the internet is the primary source for sneakerheads to collect the facts, data and price charts for every drop along the way.

The influence of urban style comes with the territory of Hip-Hop culture, which emits a synergistic energy when music and sneakers are combined. Let’s take a journey through a gallery of Hip-Hop sneakerheads that take the extra step to spread their love for kicks…..